Phelan Extends $1 Million In Funding To Help County's Juvenile Court System

January 07, 1994|By Andrew Fegelman, Tribune Staff Writer.

Virtually on the eve of an unprecedented summit delving into the problems of Cook County's Juvenile Court system, County Board President Richard Phelan offered more than $1 million Thursday to finance a number of reforms designed to help the troubled system.

Phelan's offer caught court officials by surprise. He hadn't discussed his plans with them before holding a news conference to announce that the county would finance the new programs.

Nonetheless, the assistance was welcome.

"Our job is to do the best for the children, and we appreciate any help we can get," said the Circuit Court's chief administrator, Jeffrey Arnold.

The programs Phelan offered Thursday were proposed in a pair of reports released last year in the wake of increasing criticism of the Juvenile Court system.

Chief among the programs Phelan proposed funding is the establishment of a system of hearing officers helping to alleviate the huge backlog of abuse and neglect cases handled by judges.

In addition to the 14 hearing officers, Phelan said that the county would finance the hiring of 14 social workers to assist them by providing independent evaluations of cases.

Phelan, a Democratic candidate for governor, also said the county would provide money to develop plans for a pilot family court, an idea that has been under discussion by court officials for about two years. The concept, which is already in use in a number of states, involves setting up a system in which a number of matters involving a family, from sexual abuse to domestic violence, could be handled by a single judge.

One of the major criticisms leveled against the Cook County Juvenile Court has been that judges are too often unaware of other family circumstances that affect a child. As a result, they may make decisions in a vacuum about whether a child should be kept with his family or removed from an abusive environment.

Chief Judge Harry Comerford first recommended the hearing officers in October in response to a scathing report on the case of Joseph Wallace, a case that became symbolic of the failures of the Juvenile Court and a rallying point for reforms. Wallace is the 3-year-old boy allegedly hanged by his mentally ill mother after a number of judges returned the boy to her custody.

The hearing officers are expected to help relieve caseloads by taking some preliminary matters away from the judges. They are viewed as a way to assure juvenile hearings are less contentious.

Critics say the best interests of a child haven't always been served by the present system in which lawyers for the different parties act as advocates and often don't provide a judge with all the information available about a case.

The funding still must be approved by the County Board. Phelan's aides said the money would be raised by reallocating funds in the budget.

In addition, legislation must be passed to empower the hearing officers, something Arnold said he hoped could be accomplished when the General Assembly meets next week.

Comerford and Phelan will have a chance to make their case for the legislation on Monday when the two gather in Chicago along with Gov. Jim Edgar and the four top legislative leaders for a summit on the problems of juvenile justice.

With the March 15 primary getting closer, some officials have worried privately that the meeting could get bogged down by politics. In recent weeks, in fact, Phelan has been highly critical of Edgar.

"The time for finger pointing is over; this had better not become a political issue," Arnold said. "The children don't deserve to be pawns in a political fight."